Vice operation exposed in southwest Missouri

Monday

Jun 9, 2014 at 11:00 AMJun 9, 2014 at 11:21 AM

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Hundreds of pages of reports from an FBI investigation into illegal gambling in Joplin and the surrounding areas show a wide-ranging vice operation that involved influential people in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas.

Associated Press

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Hundreds of pages of reports from an FBI investigation into illegal gambling in Joplin and the surrounding areas show a wide-ranging vice operation that involved influential people in southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas.The Joplin Globe obtained more than 600 pages of documents in response to a Freedom of Information request the newspaper filed in 2012 because the investigation had led to the firing of a Joplin police officer and indictments against three bookmakers.The documents reveal how the gambling investigation grew into a probe of drug trafficking, prostitution and public corruption.Eventually the bookies pleaded guilty and received probation, a Kansas prosecutor pleaded guilty to extortion and a Joplin police officer was fired before the investigation closed in August 2011.